Plane crashes in Venezuela with 47 on board

Caracas, September 13, 2010

A plane owned by Venezuela's state-run airline Conviasa crashed on Monday during a domestic flight with 47 people on board and came down on property belonging to government steel maker Sidor, authorities said.

Transport minister Francisco Garces said the plane was traveling between industrial city Ciudad Guayana to the Caribbean tourist island of Margarita and that rescue teams were heading for the crash site.

Emergency services chief Luis Diaz told Reuters the plane had crashed onto property belonging to Sidor, which has a large mill and land near Ciudad Guayana. He could not give more details.

"There were 47 people on board, 43 passengers and four crew," Garces told state television.

In the last major crash in Venezuela in 2008, a plane belonging to private local airline Santa Barbara with 46 passengers on board crashed into mountains, with no survivors.-Reuters